December 17, 2017

안녕하십니까?

Hello everyone!

A good first week of the transfer! We set goals, decided what we want to focus on, etc, and we are feeling good about the upcoming few weeks. 

Some orders of business-- Skype! One week from today! I can do it probably about 10 a.m. my time, which was two hours ago... Will that work for you?? What time is that for you?

Our area is going good! We were finally able to meet the S__ family again this week! They are so good and the kids are so cute. We taught the Restoration and gave them a family Book of Mormon reading and prayer calendar for the end of December. The kids are at a crucial time in their lives; their family is a little divided with Buddhism and Christianity-- although their dad was baptized years ago I think he wants the kids to be Buddhist, like their grandparents, while the mother is Christian. She shared wonderful stories of her life and testimony, and the kids are so humble and sweet and smart. We fasted for their family yesterday and today-- the missionary lesson material is all wonderful but can be hard for kids so we are trying to think of ways to teach them that will help them have fun and learn at the same time. I would love any advice you have! 

Sister S__  is so kind to the missionaries-- she thought it would be great to have a Christmas party for the missionaries who are away from home, so she contacted some other military families and planned a Christmas get together with a bunch of American Families this week. They are going to do a nativity with children, bring American food, etc. I am so excited! And We will be able to meet lots of new people, which will be awesome. And they are doing it at our church, which is good for us :)

Our Thanksgiving night! We got these good cookies and cream drinks, called Venties.

These venties are delicious!

We also were able to meet with a referral we received from a couple of my MTC friends who were serving in Daegu. His name is E_, and he is from Rwanda in Africa. Wow. What an amazing guy. We met him at a cafe and talked to him about the Plan of Salvation. E_ loves God, and has such a special spirit of love and joy about him. I think the reason he is so special is because of his humility. He obviously knows the Bible very well, he is 29 years old, his father is a pastor-- yet he willingly meets with us and expresses his desire to learn more about the Lord from us. He has started reading the Book of Mormon  and seems to love it so far. So we had a great lesson with him. We are excited to meet him again on Wednesday. Please pray for him to continue to accept the things we share about the Restored Gospel.

This is our district!

The thing I would like to highlight today is how I felt at the end of our meeting with E_. He said the closing prayer. In his prayer, he prayed for me and Elder K_ specifically, for our health and missions. His prayer was so sincere, so full of love. I felt it so strong right there in that cafe! I felt the spirit in such a special way. It made me want to me more loving, more sincere, more humble- like E_.

Humility is so important in our lives-- I think almost all sins can result as a lack of humility, or, as a surplus of the opposite of humility-- pride. I have noticed Satan tempt me with a lot of pride on my mission, as well as those around me. Fighting pride isn't an easy battle, but we can do it! First we have to recognize it. Here are some ways Satan has tempted me with pride:

• Tempting me to gain satisfaction from comparing my language, work ethic, stats, etc  from comparing to other missionaries.
• Tempting me to get angry at others when I am not as good at them in the language, work ethic, or stats, OR to not take responsibility where and when I should.
• Tempting me to get into unnecessary arguments about who is right about various topics, especially on things that aren't important-- we all know there are things that are important to be right about, and make sure others know it-- but many things we argue about are just to gratify personal pride, an attempt to prove ourselves to others or lift ourselves up.
• Tempting me to not help others or regret helping others who brought their troubles or difficult circumstances on themselves.

Perhaps some of you have had similar temptations in life! But as I recognize these things, I am working on, little by little, doing them, less and less. Hopefully someday I can be almost rid of them. Two things that helped we were the following quotes.

One is from a former President of the church and the Prophet:

"Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right."

as well as, King Benjamin's touching reminder of the mercy of God:

"For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have?" Mosiah 4:19

I love you all so much! Thanks for your examples and love and emails! :) 

Love,

Elder Beckett